Every year I like to reflect on the previous 12 months, and review my annual goals (read my 2014 post here, and my goals for 2015 here) – as my friend Lizzy wrote on her excellent blog post at The Pillow Fort, “taking time to review and reflect is really important; both for consciously creating your future, but also celebrating just how far you’ve come”.

This year, I had a very tough patch of mental illness, which thankfully cleared towards the end of Spring. I met new people, developed new friendships, and learned a lot about myself and my needs along the way. I had to reapply for my own job, which brought to the surface a lot of deep-seated insecurities and feelings of being an impostor. (I did get my job back, thankfully!) And of course, I recorded and released a new EP, and did a mini-tour to promote it. 2015 was a challenging, formative year in many ways, but I’m happy with how much I’ve grown as a person over the last 12 months, and what good things have come from some difficult situations. 🙂

BIG SCARY IMPORTANT GOALS:

Record and release an EP – completed!
Read about the process here. I plan to write a long introspective blog post about it soon!

Record an album – not completed
After recording and releasing the EP, I didn’t have enough time left over to do an album – 2 releases in 1 year was too ambitious at this stage of my career to be honest. I’d rather take my time over each subsequent release and create something I’m happy with, instead of rushing through a project just so it’s done.

Put together and release a demos album – not completed
Again, this was a bit ambitious given everything else that went on! I do have just enough recorded material for a demos album, but I think I’d rather release a proper album before a demos album. What do you think?

Do a live-stream internet gig – completed!
And it went so well! Read about it here.

Professionally film some live performance music videos – not completed
I did record this live video with Pirate Jenny Cabaret, but I wasn’t happy with my performance so decided not to do any more until I got a bit more comfortable in front of a camera.

Film and release a music video – not completed
The marketing and gigging aspect of the EP release took priority this year, which I think is fine. I really want to do this next year though!

Create new music promo materials – completed!
I created new business cards, flyers, posters, a press pack, social media promo materials, and a new bio.

Redo Couch to 5K – completed!
I ran the Swansea Race for Life 5k, and completed it in 37 minutes which I’m pretty happy with!

Go to a party – completed!
My friend Evey’s Eurovision party/tweet-a-thon back in May, which was so much fun! I’ve been to a few parties since too, yay. 🙂

SMALLER PERSONAL GOALS:

Set aside time to write music/lyrics weekly – not completed

Set up a joint account for household expenses – completed!

Tone up – not completed

Get at least 1 more tattoo – completed!

Do at least another 10 yoga classes (with a new teacher) – not (quite) completed

Learn how to do a proper push up – completed!

Dive deeper into music, and let other hobbies take more of a backseat – completed!